Watch exciting demonstrations, shop for glass art, see a new exhibition on its opening day, and even create your own masterpiece. You can visit this link at www.barriovidrio.com to get the full schedule.

Sonoran Glass School’s co-founders Dave Klein and Tom Philabaum will give a lecture/discussion on the beginnings of the Sonoran Art Foundation, Inc. which later became what we know today as Sonoran Glass School. Following the talk is a furnace glassblowing collaborative project directed by Klein and Philabaum featuring the
SGS Hot Shop Crew.

“Philabaum Celebrates 40 Years in Tucson”

1975

2015

In 1975, Philabaum left Chicago in a snowstorm, drove to Tucson, and never looked back.

That first week he slept in his van along the Mt. Lemmon highway, but by day soon found a warehouse to rent for sleeping and more importantly, his studio. There he formed the Clay & Glass Cooperative with several other artists. And there he built Arizona’s first glass studio.

By 1980, Dale Chihuly came for several winters to rent time for his own work. Chihuly was followed by his first assistant, William Morris, who began making his own work during the winter months in the Philabaum studio. The studio had a life of its own.

This summer we celebrate Philabaum’s glass years in Tucson by featuring works from his many series.

“GLASS REIMAGINED”

OPENING RECEPTION – February 7, 5:00 – 8:00 pm, Open to the Public.

February 7 – April 25, 2015
The exhibition features the glass box series of Henry Halem. The sealed glass boxes become environments for Halem’s exercises in composition, utilizing the canvas that is the glass surface, and the objects inside the box.

OPENING ARTIST’S RECEPTION

February 7, 5:00 pm to 8 pm

Meet artist Henry Halem, an early member of the Glass Art Society and Head of Glass studies at Kent State University from 1969-1998.

“This series of glass boxes has been an ongoing project of mine for a good number of years. Many but not all of the boxes use the container form as a focus for all the information depicted in the box. All the boxes are totally sealed. The sealed box heightens the tension one experiences when access is denied. The expression within the works is my expression of how I draw within the context of the object contained in each of the boxes. Most if not all the boxes are multi-media insofar as some of the drawings include acrylic colors, oil stick, precious leaf, bees wax, cloth and india ink. The drawings are on the reverse side of the glass.

The boxed “Environments” are exercises in composition. Some are surreal in nature and combine container forms and detritus that one might find in a glass studio. The boxes are meant to be enigmatic, that is, there is no narrative implied. Some of the works are meant to conjure a locked museum case housing objects from dead cultures. Simple everyday objects locked behind glass take on a preciousness never intended for these particular objects. One is first drawn to the central object within the box but soon discovers the canvas that is the plate glass surface.”
Henry Halem

Public Demos

Visitors may watch the artists create the works in the Philabaum Studio preceding the exhibition. The finished works will be on display for the Opening Reception. Tuesday, 9/30 10-2 Wednesday, 10/1 10-2 Thursday, 10/2 10-2